Falling into Love
by Kasai-no-Kitsune
Summary: AU, oneshot ::You know that saying, "falling in love", right? Well, I bet I was the only one who could claim that literally.:: RikuSora


_Disclaimer: _Maybe if I pray hard enough, the rights to all of Kingdom Hearts' smexy characters will belong to me. Ignoring my agnostic beliefs. Pray with me.

_Author's Notes: _Please, don't faint now. I know it's shocking for me to update so much at once. Yeah, I'm spoiling you. But I have nothing better to do. (I love you guys, really!) Anyway, this little oneshot is a Riku POV. I think it sounds a bit too OOC, but my beta Jade (Koi Fsh, look her up sometime! Her stuff is awesome!) thought it sounded fine. Eh. This oneshot is dedicated to music! Namely, songs that make you feel like you're flying.I love those kinds.

_Song Suggestions: _"Suspension" by Mae, "First Time" by Lifehouse

* * *

_**T**_hough I was basically conscious, conscious thoughts didn't quite reach me. I depended a bit more on sensations. And currently, all I was getting was weird scratchy material, something poking into my arm, an insistent, high-pitched, rhythmic beeping, some low voices chatting outside my room, and overall, an overwhelming ache in my head. 

I groaned a little, and immediately a few people were at my bedside, taking my temperature and asking how I felt. By that time, I'd regained my conscious thoughts, so the first thing I did was register the true reasons behind those sensations. The weird scratchy something was a hospital garb. The something poking into my arm was an IV, dripping liquid painkiller into my veins. The insistent, high-pitched, rhythmic beeping was a electro cardio gram, dutifully recording my heart rate in the form of irritating beeps that only hurt my aching head more. The low voices were nurses talking about my records outside the room.

A hospital.

Just as I was struggling to recall exactly how I'd ended up in such a _pleasant_ place, the prettiest boy I'd ever seen settled down next to my bed, a look of the utmost concern on his sweet face. My breath caught in my throat, which only made the nurses fuss over me more. How could I not remember those dazzling eyes?

"Hey, are you feeling better?" the boy's voice fit him perfectly. It was neither too high nor too low, and it held the perfect amount of worry.

"Um, a bit..." I answered, mentally cursing my closed-off throat. My voice was a lot hoarser than I'd intended it to be.

"Sorry we were never really introduced." The boy's mouth stretched in an ironic sort of smile. "My name is Sora. Yours is...?"

That sounded familiar...

* * *

_**T**_he day had been particularly clear, and since we had rain for the past few weeks in Destiny Islands, my friends and I had promised to spend the day out at our favorite mall. Not that they were very loyal, those bastards; Leon and Cloud escaped the very second they could to go have sex in a bathroom somewhere, Axel had skipped off to parts unknown, most likely to go gamble at Luxord's place, and Tifa had been swept right off her feet by many, many male admirers, all of whom insisted on buying her drinks (I expected to find her very hung over the next day, and when she was, I swore to myself that I'd laugh in her face). All alone in the vast expanse of mall and bored out of my mind, I completely forgot that I did, in fact, have enemies who hated my guts and were just waiting for a chance to beat my ass once I was alone. They never had the guts to do anything with my friends around. 

Unfortunately, they found the perfect opportunity that day.

"Well well, if it isn't the albino pretty boy Riku." My blood ran cold for a moment. No mistaking that cold voice. Saïx. My first childish reaction was to squeak "No, it really isn't!" and flee, but I was manlier than that.

"Well well, if it isn't the scarface jackass Saïx." I mocked, turning around completely to face him. Sure enough, he was surrounded by his even bigger jackass boyfriend Xemnas and Xemnas's other cronies, Xigbar and Xaldin. The two latter looked bloodthirsty. I swear, those sideburns gave Xaldin a constant scowl that was very unattractive, and Xigbar's premature gray hair definitely retracted from his prettiness. Plus the scar across his face and eyepatch. Normally eyepatches were cool, right? The mark of a pirate. But Xigbar was much too ugly to be a pirate. Not to mention the fact that he spoke with a "surfer dude" accent. I couldn't say much to insult Xemnas's and Saïx's appearances, since they were actually attractive, but they were badasses, in a good and bad way. And Xigbar and Xaldin's bulging muscles were pretty threatening.

"Don't talk back to your betters." Xemnas's brows furrowed at my insult. He was way too protective of his little bitch-- I mean, boyfriend.

"Betters? I don't see any of my so-called _betters_around here." Childish comeback, but I didn't have anything else up my sleeve at the moment. My mind was racing; I needed to find Axel, Cloud, Leon, Tifa, anyone... I couldn't take them on my own.

"Right. Well, since I'm a _jackass,_" Saïx's eyes glinted in a very worrying way, "I'm at perfect liberty to kick your ass." Still I didn't move. I was terrified, sure, but I wasn't about to give them that satisfaction. While I hesitated, Xemnas stormed up to me and grabbed my shoulder roughly.

"This is the part where you run." he growled. I didn't need to be told twice. With one quick motion, I threw Xemnas's hand away and took off down the corridor, scattering the startled shoppers in my way. Only one thought drove me: _"Find someone, anyone. Axel, Leon, Cloud, Tifa, someone!"_ I could hear the others thumping after me like lions after prey.

My wild escape lead me to the second story, which was less crowded than the first. Less obstacles to crash into, but less people to save me if they managed to catch up. Somehow I managed to duck into the restaurants, and dodge through them onto the balconies, which, in retrospect, was probably not the smartest move, since I was very easily cornered there. As I soon found out when there was nowhere else to run.

"Just like a little rat." Xigbar sneered at me, and I glared back with as much dignity as I could muster. If I was going down, I'd go down with my head held high. So instead of waiting for them to come to me, I threw the first punch, right at Saïx's face. A nice smack told me that I'd hit my mark perfectly. With a roar of anger, Xemnas shoved me back, right into the railing. While I reeled, Xemnas landed a gut-wrenching punch in my stomach. I choked for a moment, but Xemnas didn't allow me to recover. Instead, he forced my head back up by slamming into my face with a vicious uppercut.

This is where everything went wrong.

Because once I tipped backwards, I tipped right over the railing of the balcony and fell right off.

I panicked, of course, but a small part of me had to be happy that I slipped right out of their evil clutches. The rest of me panicked.

I only fell for a few moments before I slammed mind-numbingly hard right on top of a table on the ground outside a cafe on the first floor. All the customers screamed-- I mean, how often does a person fall from the second floor onto your lunch? And the first thing I noticed when I turned to look at the people whose table I landed on was blue eyes staring with shock right back at me.

"Hello?" I said weakly to the spiky-haired brunette, the owner of those beautiful eyes. Then I slipped into blackness.

* * *

_**I**_ smiled faintly at Sora. "My name? I'm Riku." 

"Riku," Sora tested the name, rolling it off his tongue as if he was born just to say my name, "Now that we're properly introduced, do you want to tell me why you fell off the second story of the mall?"

My smile twisted a bit. "Oh, right. Some guys cornered me..."

Sora was instantly all concern again. "Oh my goodness! Why? Are you okay?"

"Well, I'm in the hospital," I said contemplatively, "so I'd guess that it's fair to say that I'm not completely okay, but beyond that whole 'getting my ass kicked' thing, which I'll never live down, by the way, I'd have to say I'm fine." I really and truly had to clench my jaw to avoid saying something stupid like, "Your eyes are the ultimate healing potions".

Sora just stared blankly at me for a moment before bursting into addictive laughter. And when I say addictive, I mean_ addictive. _Like, I just wanted to sit there and live in Sora's laughter for the rest of forever, kind of addictive.

"You're weird." he giggled, wiping his eyes. "But I think I like you."

"I like you too." I said it before I could stop. Luckily, he didn't seem to pick up on the dualism of this statement.

"In that case, let's be friends." Once he smiled that shining smile of his, I was completely, hopelessly lost.

You know that saying, "falling in love", right? Well, I bet I was the only one who could actually claim that statement literally.

* * *

_**A**_bout half an hour later, when I'd been checked and rechecked and finally assured the nurses that there were no broken bones or other life-threatening wounds, I was allowed to waltz right out of that dingy hospital, Sora chatting freely next to me. 

"Hey, weren't you with someone?" I interrupted Sora's babbles, frowning. Sora didn't seem miffed at all at the interruption. "A redheaded girl?" And indeed, I had noticed another person, a girl on the other side of the table, but all she was in my mind was a blur of red hair and pretty pink skin. I could, however, remember blue eyes just as shockingly blue as Sora's, though the girl's were softer, whereas Sora's tended to glitter charmingly.

"Oh yeah, Kairi." Sora seemed completely unconcerned. "We were out on a date, but she decided to go home once I said I'd stay with you and see if you were okay. She sends her condolences, by the way, and wishes you a speedy recovery." I was amazed by how jaunty his voice could get.

Besides that, though... a date? Mr. Adorable had been on a _date, _with a_girl? _Dammit, that cut my chances down to less than zero...

"Oh, well, that's nice of her." I grinned slightly, what Axel called my "Cool Guy Smile" (© Axel, used with permission. It always is. I mean, it's _my _smile... maybe I should sue Axel).

I tended to wear it unconsciously when I wanted to impress people. And for some reason, Sora was reacting. His own smile faltered a little, wiggled nervously, and he fidgeted a lot more.

A perfect distraction then arrived in the form of my cellphone buzzing like an angry hornet. I tugged it out, briefly checked the caller I.D and flipped it open.

"Axel?" I said irritably. What a time to check up on me.

"Yo, Riku! Where the hell did you go?" Axel's voice was barely recognizable through the obvious noise of a crowd that filtered in through the speaker behind him.

"How long have you been looking?" One of my eyebrows raised.

"How long, eh..." Axel hesitated. Definitely a sign of guilt. "About, uh... ten minutes?" I groaned. Asshole.

"How long have you been busy, and what the hell with?" I demanded. "And why didn't the others look for me?"

Axel chose to avoid the first two parts of my inquiry. He sounded like he was listing off groceries. "Tifa's drunk off her ass," Ha, who called it? "Cloud's phone's batteries are dead, and Leon's phone got dropped into the toilet as they were, ah, _practicing their gymnastics._" Axel's snicker made it all too clear that he was highly amused by the fate of Leon's cellphone. I wasn't as happy, since a phone-less Leon meant a very pissed Leon. Oh well, maybe it was better than a sexually-deprived Leon.

"And you?" I asked suspiciously. Axel immediately clammed. Bulls-eye.

"I was, um... elsewhere, doing other things." I could completely visualize Axel's hand waving carelessly to match his airy voice. If he thought he was tricking me, he had another thing coming... but then again, I was too tired to duel with Axel at the moment. Plus the fact that Sora must have been getting bored.

"Yeah, more like doing other people." I chuckled, and to my surprise, I could have sworn that Axel muttered something about "Only one." Though my curiosity was greatly aroused, I let it drop. "Anyway, while you were off fooling around with who knows what, I had a trip to the hospital."

"WHAT?!" Whatever Axel had been expecting, that clearly wasn't it. "What the hell happened to you?"

"Well, Saïx-bastard and his stupid boyfriend caught me and beat my ass." Axel whistled. "And you cold-hearted bastards had to ditch me! So guess what? I got cornered and fell off the second story of the mall." Now Axel really whooped.

"_Damn, _that must have been funny as hell for anyone watching!" he chuckled. I was trying not to raise my voice too much, really, I was.

"Funny as hell, you heartless bastard?! My head aches like a bitch now and I was in that fucking hospital for a goddamn hour and a half!" Yeah, I tended to swear a lot when I got angry. Which wasn't often, now that I thought about it. I was usually a pretty calm guy. But Axel was just too much.

"Ok, ok, not funny for you." Axel was obviously still enjoying this, though so I chose to fume and give him the cold shoulder. "Riku, man? You still there? Sorry, okay, it was funny. I'll stop being an ass now."

"Thank you." I said sulkily. Axel's husky laughter reverberated though my ear.

"So, are you alone now? Where are you?"

"I'm not alone, I'm with the guy whose lunch I crushed." I sent an amused, half-apologetic smile toward Sora, who waved me off good-naturedly.

"Really? Must be a dedicated guy then, since you don't know him. That, or he's really bored." I tutted disapprovingly at this. "So, is he cute?" Axel's voice mocked me. Though his tone was light and playful, the intent behind it was hard and clear like crystal. That bastard was a mind-reader, I could tell. He knew exactly how deep the shit (or in this case, love) I'd fallen into was.

"None of your business." I snapped, and hung up the phone roughly. Sora gave me an odd look, which I ignored.

"Well, uh, since I kind of crushed your lunch, maybe you'll let me buy you a new one?" I offered awkwardly, tugging at the tips of my silver hair.

"Sure, that'd be fun!" Sora flashed that dazzling smile at me. I think my heart just got filled with air.

"Okay... but can we not go to the mall?"

"Yeah, that's fine." Sora laughed.

* * *

_**S**_omehow, and I'm not entirely sure how, Sora and I became friends. The fact that we traded phone numbers before splitting up that day probably helped a lot. And the fact that Sora was just so goddamn _friendly. _Like he wanted to befriend the whole world. Maybe if he did, we'd finally get world peace. 

It made me really, really depressed when I remembered he wasn't mine.

His girlfriend Kairi started to hang out a lot with us. Sora always got really cuddly with her, which did absolutely nothing for my poor abused heart.

"Hey, do you have a girlfriend, Riku?" Sora asked once while we lounged around under a tree in the park. He sounded like the thought had just occurred to him. I shifted uncomfortably and tried to focus on the pretty green trees, the squirrels flitting around, or even the clouds drifting lazily though the sky. Anything to keep my mind off Sora, his sweet, chiming voice, and his arms draped over Kairi's shoulders. Normally the picture would have been adorable. Kairi and Sora were absolutely an adorable couple after all. But the dark, selfish part of my heart recoiled whenever I looked at them.

"Nope." I said lightly, thanking whatever gods were listening (and I bet none of them were, since they didn't have time to pay attention to all the whiny humans that prayed their problems away) that I had good acting skills and could easily hide my discomfort.

"Really? But you're so attractive, girls must be throwing themselves at you." I felt heat ball in my cheeks to hear Sora call me attractive.

"Not really. Try the other sex." I muttered without realizing.

"What?" Oh, Sora wasn't listening anyway. Kairi, though, was another story. Her eyes widened a little, and her mouth thinned knowingly.

"Riku..." she started, her tone heavy with purpose. I sensed her intentions right away.

"Am_ I_...?" I asked wryly. "Yeah, I am." Kairi's eyes widened even more. From what I could tell, though, she seemed more thoughtful than disgusted. Sora was utterly lost.

"Are you what?" he asked me. I ignored him. "What are you?" he more whined, half at me and half at Kairi. Kairi seemed amused at Sora's distress, and a little concerned at my silence. Finally, I'd had enough.

"I think I'm calling it a day." I sighed, standing and brushing dirt off my behind. Sora jumped a bit, as he hadn't been expecting me to leave so soon.

"But _wait! _What are you?" Sora shouted at me. I only laughed at him. I figured that since Kairi knew, it was only a matter of time, so it would be better to just get it off my chest while I could. If Sora was going to reject me anyway, might as well let him hear it from my own mouth.

"What am_I_?" I called over my shoulder as I walked off down the sunny grass, toward my apartment. "Gay, of course!" I added a little hip flick to my walk and turned away from Sora, noticing with dry amusement that a girl who had been checking me out drop her purse in shock.

Behind me, I heard Kairi laugh charmingly, full of joy. I really had no chance.

* * *

_**I**_ fully expected Sora to avoid me completely after that. All of my other straight guy friends abandoned me when I first came out, so I expected the same reaction. Which meant that I was taken completely off-guard when I got a call from Sora at 9 in the morning. 

"Hello?" I muttered groggily into the phone, still half-asleep. I hadn't even gotten out of bed yet.

"Hey, sleepy-head! Why aren't you up yet? You're usually awake when I call you at this time." How in the world was it possible for someone's voice to be that cheerful so early?! Then again, it wasn't exactly early and it was _Sora _I was talking to...

"I, uh... wasn't expecting you to call." I answered truthfully. "After what I told you yesterday..."

"What, that you're gay? Why would I ditch you after something as small as that, silly?" Sora laughed.

"All my other guy friends ditched me when I came out a few years ago. All the ones who weren't gay, at least." I had no idea why I was being truthful with him. There was just something about his aura that made one want to be a good person. "I guess I just... expected the same reaction."

"What?! That's horrible! They must have been horrible friends. I'd never do that to a friend, no matter which gender you like better!" Sora sounded outraged, and on _my _behalf. A warm bubble swelled in my heart at that knowledge. Sora was so sweet.

"... Oh. Thanks a lot, Sora. That means a lot." I said truthfully, warmly. Sora was silent for long enough to make me nervous, and when he spoke again, it sounded like he was fumbling over his words.

"Oh, n-no problem!" he stuttered, then laughed brightly. To me it seemed like a last attempt to throw me off, make me forget that awkwardness. Was Sora _nervous? _What about?

"Anyway, are you still going to hang out with us today? There's this new sushi place that opened up down the street from the park, and Kairi and I were planning on going there yesterday with you, but you just walked off, so we decided it wouldn't be the same without you and didn't go." Sora's breathlessness didn't escape me, but I chalked it up to talking too fast without enough air to talk on.

"Sure, sounds great." I smiled into the phone, even though I knew Sora couldn't see it, and flipped over, pulling myself gracelessly out of bed. "If you can deal with having a gay friend."

"You aren't still hung up on that, are you?" Sora asked me, mock-sternly. "I told you, I don't care about your sexual orientation. My own brother is gay, you know."

"It's not the same." I muttered under my breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, Sora."

* * *

_**W**_e had been waiting for Kairi at the park where we met the day before for at least twenty minutes. I kept track, because Sora had an unnerving ability to complain about the time exactly five minutes apart, and he'd complained four times at least. Just as I was about to suggest we just ditch Kairi and force her to meet us at the restaurant, Sora's pocket buzzed, and he pulled out his cellphone. 

"Hello? Oh, hey Kairi! Where are you? Riku and I are waiting... oh... she did? I'm sorry, I hope she gets better soon... but a cold? Do you really need to help her with something like that? ... Well, if you say so... yeah, I'll be fine." At this point, something Kairi said turned Sora's cheeks a bright red. "W-_What?!_ Of _course _we won't, Kairi! How could you suggest that--" Sora dropped the phone from his ear, glaring at it as if Kairi could see him through the phone. "She hung up." he informed me angrily. I chuckled.

"What did she say?" I asked, leaning forward over his shoulder to look at his phone as if Kairi would magically call back and reveal the secret to me. Then again, maybe I didn't want to know what it was, if it was a secret lover's thing...

"Oh, sh-she didn't say anything important... except that her sister Naminé is sick with a cold, and she wants to stay home today and help her, but she said we shouldn't put this trip off for her, so we should just go and have lunch without her..." he added something at the end that I didn't catch, but I could have sworn I heard something about a "date".

Surprisingly, Sora didn't seem to like me touching his shoulder. He muscles seized up, and he squirmed as far away from me as he could without me noticing. Unfortunately, I did notice. I frowned contemplatively and backed off so abruptly that Sora nearly fell over and turned around to me with questions bouncing around behind his eyes.

"Let's go. Kairi wants us to eat, right?" I said over the constricting of my throat, and marched right into the restaurant without looking back at Sora once. Though I could feel Sora following me, I was afraid to look back and see his expression.

* * *

_**F**_or some reason, for every day after that, Kairi used every excuse in the book to avoid us, leaving Sora and I to spend some quality time together. And it perplexed me. Every time she saw us, Kairi would send a knowing smile at me and sidle up to Sora, whispering things in his ear that left him spluttering and denying everything, cheeks the color of a sunburned tomato. I had no idea what he was denying, though. And those little smiles were getting on my nerves. I was very tempted to tug the little redhead away and force her to explain herself, but she always slipped away from any chance I spotted to corner her. 

Not that I resented the alone time with Sora. On the contrary, I couldn't have been happier, and a little voice in the back of my head was constantly blessing Kairi with the most elegant language I knew. Sora, though he initially pouted at the lack of Kairi, also seemed delighted to spend so much time with me. Plus the fact that I tended to spoil him when I could made for a very happy Sora.

That particular day, I had paid for both our ice cream cones.

"It's hot." Sora complained, fanning himself. I silently agreed; Silently because I didn't trust myself to form words at the moment, not with Sora next to me, beads of sweat running down his neck... ugh. I just wanted to lean over and lick them off. But of course that would be creepy to a straight man. Instead, I tried to take in the nice scenery of the cafe we were sitting outside.

"Hey, is that my brother?" Sora asked suddenly, out of the blue. I glanced around, searching for the mystery brother who was apparently also gay, but instead I saw some unmistakable spiky red hair.

"Axel?" I said incredulously, more to myself than Sora, since I assumed he didn't know Axel. Apparently I was wrong.

"You know Axel?" Sora turned his big blue eyes on me. I spluttered a bit.

"_Know _him? Yeah, I know him. How do _you _know him?" I asked, completely and utterly confused.

"Roxas, my brother, brings him over to our house a lot." Sora said, an amused smile beginning to take form on his face. "This is so weird that you know him too! Come on, let's go say hi!" With this, Sora snagged my wrist and pulled me unwillingly over to his brother and Axel.

His brother turned out to be a short blond with a mess of spikes, but not like Sora's. While Sora's tended to fly in every direction, Roxas's were swept carefully to one side. And, truth be told, he wasn't _that_short. He was about the same height as Sora, but compared to Axel (and me, even) he looked like a shrimp.

I certainly didn't fail to notice Axel's hand clasped over Roxas's, nor the guilty expression Axel wore when Sora shouted to him. It was the classic "deer-caught-in-the-headlights" look. I had a silly urge to take a picture of it.

"Oh, h-hey, Riku... What's up? You out on a date?" Axel was obviously still trying to get his wits together again. If that was the best he could come up with, I had nothing to worry about.

"Not me... can't say much for you though." I smirked at him, inclining my head toward Roxas, who was currently distracted by his excitable brother.

"Roxas, hey! Funny running into you here! Hey, Roxas, this is Riku. You know," Sora coughed slightly, as Roxas's expression of polite confusion hadn't faded at the mention of my name, "_Riku._The one I, ah..."

"Oh, the one you talk about all the time. Right, him. I'm Roxas, nice to meet you." Roxas extended his hand, and I took it, my head buzzing. Sora talked about me all the time? What did he say about me? Sora looked embarrassed... much like he did when Kairi was whispering those sweet nothings at him, actually. Hmm.

"Riku, same to you." I replied distantly. I would have continued my musings, but the temptation to tease Axel was too great. I pulled the taller male away as Sora linked arms with his brother, pulling the bemused boy down the sidewalk, jabbering about nothing.

"So, Axel." I said teasingly. "Roxas, hm? He's sure a cute one. What's there to be embarrassed about?"

"Don't say anything to him, got it?" Axel growled. I started. He was not joking. "This is, uh... this is serious, ok? It's not just a fling. I really want to try with Roxas. So don't mess it up for me, or I'll burn you alive."

"I believe you." I laughed gently. "Trust me, I won't say anything to him. It's better that you settle down, anyway."

Axel nodded gruffly, then sent me a smirk of his own. "You and Sora, eh?"

"Don't even start." I lamented. "Don't _even. _Sora has a girlfriend. I don't have a chance."

"I don't know about that." Axel replied thoughtfully. "Roxas has told me some of the stuff that Sora says about you. He's pretty obsessed with you, bud." This came as a surprise to me. Sora, obsessed over me? Sure, I was sexy, but he was _straight,_ right?

"Hey, we should go on a group date!" Sora's voice floated over to Axel and me. "You know, me, Kairi, Roxas, you guys, and anyone else who wants to come! That'll be fun!"

"Yeah, if we all contribute, we can go somewhere really fancy." Roxas suggested, smiling faintly over at Axel. "I've always wanted to try one of those restaurants for a date." Axel grinned apologetically.

"Sorry I'm not rich, Roxy..."

"Nothing to apologize over, even if you are being sarcastic. Come on, how about next Saturday? A big group date?"

* * *

_**H**_ow I was ever conned into this "big group date" idea, I'll never have the brains to know. Why? Because my brains will be completely fried by the time the "big group date" is over. Three guesses as to why, and two of them don't count. 

Sora.  
He was driving me crazy. Completely crazy. The tension between us had grown to such a pitch that I could hardly look at him anymore. And tonight, oh, tonight. Kairi looked absolutely stunning in her sparkly, flowy purple dress. Sora was all over her, the whole night. I _really_couldn't look at him then.

I think everyone knew my feelings for Sora by that point, even Kairi. And she wasn't even mad at me. She was _comforting _me, trying to nudge Sora off her and toward me the whole night. But he wasn't looking at me either. He would blush, splutter uselessly and find an excuse to escape if I tried to approach him.

I was completely screwed.

The hotel we'd chosen to eat dinner at was one of the fanciest I'd ever seen. Every inch of the place glittered with warm candles and gold trim. To top it off, the hotel was perched right next to the ocean, so one could stroll around the balcony, listening to the soothing waves, cuddling with your beloved and watching the moon rise steadily into the sky.

It was too pretty for my pessimistic tastes.

I used the excuse of needing fresh air to escape onto the balcony for a few minutes. Leaning on the railing and letting the waves sooth me into a half-awake state, I let all my cares slip away, just for that moment.

But they had to come running right back to me.

"Are you mad at me?"

My eyes flew open to take in Sora, standing before me, looking more nervous than ever. Dear god, he was beautiful. The orange light from the restaurant behind him was lighting his back with a warm glow, while the moon was bathing his face in silver light. My breath caught then. No, no, I couldn't deal with this. Not now.

"Are you mad at me?" Sora asked again, more insistently. He sounded choked, like he was close to crying. I hated it. Instead of answering right away, I flipped around and hopped onto the railing, so I was sitting on it and facing Sora.

"... No." I admitted truthfully. "I'm not mad at you, per say..."

"Then what's wrong?" Sora demanded. "You haven't looked me in the eye since Kairi started avoiding us."

"What about you, eh?" I countered defensively. "You haven't talked to me straight since then! You always get so flustered..."

"This isn't about me! It's about you!" Sora retorted. To which I had no answer. The forbidden words were much too close to the tip of my tongue for comfort. "Something's bugging you, Riku. Is this about your sexuality again? I _told _you, I don't care--"

"You don't, eh?" I snapped bitterly. I'd been bottling too much since Kairi started to avoid us. Since Sora shied away from me. "What about that day, huh? The day Naminé "came down with a cold"? I touched you, just a little, and you _recoiled. _What, you afraid of being touched by the gay guy?"

"Th-that's not..." Sora flinched as if my words were turning into hissing snakes before his eyes. I felt a little guilty, but I was too angry to care.

"_Help, Mommy! The gay man touched me! I might have gay germs!_" I taunted in a singsong voice. Sora's cheeks flushed, and he glared fiercely at me.

"That's _not it, _Riku! I told you, I don't care that you're gay!" he shouted. To my shame, I noticed the moonlight glinting off his eyes, which meant they were more watery than usual.

"Well, maybe you should." I replied angrily. "Want to know why? Because a gay guy might develop _feelings _for a straight guy. It's happened before. Nothing new." I half-turned from him, which really wasn't a good idea while I was sitting on a narrow railing. But I wasn't thinking straight at the moment.

Sora seemed stunned. I could practically see the wheels turning behind his eyes as he picked up the implications of my words.

"Straight... Riku, do you..." he gulped. "Do you mean _me_?"

"No shit, Sherlock." I grumbled, avoiding his eyes. To my horror, though, he didn't leave me forever like I expected him to. No, he_walked forward. _He walked toward me with his hand outstretched, an emotion I didn't want to try to identify in his eyes. "Don't touch me!" I yelped, batting his hand away. He looked taken aback for a moment but pressed forward.

"Just _talk _to me, Ri!" Sora cried at me.

"If you're going to leave me, just _leave me alone, _Sora!" I shouted. By this time, we'd attracted the attention of the rest of our group, who were all running out to see what the problem was. It was here that I made the second stupidest, yet most wonderful decisions of my life. I tried to shove Sora away from me more forcefully.

All this lead to was me losing my balance and toppling off the edge of the balcony.

I could hear two main things: All my friends, Sora above them all, screaming my name, and the whistle of the wind in my ears. I was reminded ironically of the time I met Sora, and that was all I had to think about as I smacked into the ocean. The icy water hit me like a hammer to the skull, knocking my breath right out of my lungs. It was here that it occurred to me that falls like that could kill people, and thanking the gods (who had maybe decided to tune one ear in, at least) for saving my life. I rose to the surface, gasping for air, and swam as fast as possible back to shore.

All of my friends were waiting out on the beach, all of them looking terrified. My feet hit lovely, wonderfully solid sand, so I struggled to stand and wade the rest of the way back to shore. I had a moment of peace, then a lone figure detached himself from the group and sprinted in a beeline for me. I couldn't have failed to recognize those brown spikes.  
Sora scrambled through the water to me, and before I could snap anything at him (not that I had the energy to), he threw his arms around my neck so hard that we both tumbled backward into the water. I could hear him sobbing incoherently into my shirt.

"Riku, oh dear god, don't ever do that again!" he managed to convey. "I thought you were dead!"

"Not quite." I patted his head awkwardly. "I should really break this habit of falling around you." Sora hiccoughed pathetically, something close to a giggle, then sat back and looked me fully in the eye. Though his clothes and hair was a mess from the water and his eyes red fro crying, he still looked beautiful. I imagined that I looked no better.

Then I stopped imagining anything at all. Because Sora leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine.

He tasted like salt water... or maybe that was just the salt water that was clinging to me. Either way, that taste was washed away fairly quickly when Sora opened his mouth for me, letting our tongues slide against each other. I could feel Sora's inexperience, but it only made things more right. His hands were on my shoulders, and my hands drifted up to cup his face.

When we finally broke apart, Sora was smiling the most joyful smile I'd ever seen from him.

"Wow! That had way more sparks than any kiss with Kairi." he commented appreciatively. I laughed, but it died quickly.

"Kairi... What about her?" I asked, concerned. "What about your relationship?"

Sora shrugged. "We're better off as friends, she said. I think she was trying to get us together a long time ago, actually." I nodded thoughtfully. Yes, I'd noticed that too.

"Well, we have a party to get to." I smiled. "Shall we go back?" Sora nodded, laughing that addictive laughter of his, and kissed me chastely on the lips one more time.

"Yeah, let's go... the right way, this time."

Hand in hand, Sora and I struggled through the soft sand, back to shore. Somehow, I felt like I was walking into the start of something new and beautiful, something I'd hang on to for the rest of my life.

Yeah, I fell right smack into love. And I wasn't expecting it to happen ever again.

* * *

_Author's Notes: _Hm, too cheesy? Well, we all need a break from reality now and then, and some cheese is good sometimes! (excuses, excuses.) Review pretty please dudes! 


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